ORIGINAL PAINTING: Private commission

ISHTAR GATE

The fabulous Ishtar Gate in Babylon around the time of Nebuchadnezzar II in the early part of the sixth century BC. The king in his war chariot heads out of the city down the Processional Way. The blue, lapis-lazuli glazed bricks would have shone out from the mundane mud bricks that most of the city would have been made from. The Gate was further decorated with alternating rows of dragons and aurochs while the Processional way was lined with lions.